Myanmar's junta says not ready to h

Subject: Myanmar's junta says not ready to hand over power (AFP)
Myanmar's junta says not ready to hand over power
TOKYO, May 21 (AFP) - Myanmar's military junta does not trust democracy leader
Aung San Suu Kyi to take over power until a new constitution is in
place, its ambassador
to Japan U Khin Maung Thein said Friday.
He gave no timetable for drawing up a constitution, however.
U Khin Maung Thein also told the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan
he was a
reluctant politician and would really prefer "going back to my village
and my mountain,
my jungle, my birthplace."
"The military "don't want to do this job but we cannot give it to
somebody which is not...
who does not know about the country and ethnics and the background
history of our
country," he said.
Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Laureate, only knew about "Western ideology,"
he said,
adding that rulers in Myanmar must not show animosity to neighbours or
ethnic groups.
"It must be a very firm constitution that ethnic groups should not
fight each (other) again.
When politicians cannot solve the problem they use the military to
fight, like NATO....
this is what we don't like."
In 1990, two years after the military killed thousands of protesters
during a
pro-democracy uprising, Aung San Suu Kyi's party won a landslide
victory in Myanmar's
first democratic election in almost 30 years.
But the junta has refused to give up power, saying it must first draft
a constitution
through a convention of handpicked supporters.
The ambassador said army rulers had delivered peace and stability to
Myanmar, denying
television reports to the contrary by stations such as CNN and the BBC
as distortions or
inventions.
"Of the little that is known almost half of all the information (that)
appears in all foreign
media tends to be distorted, exaggerated, sometimes made up, sometimes
trimmed,
sometimes cut to suit the purpose of certain designers whose ultimate
aim is to defame
and vilify Myanmar's image," he said.
The ambassador complained about US television news station CNN's
coverage of Aung
San Suu Kyi's British husband, who died of cancer in March. The junta
refused him a
visa to see her and she did not want to leave Myanmar, fearful she
would not be allowed
back in.
"On CNN they showed a public uprising in Yangon but all the pictures
were showed
were a mob in front of the embassy in Bangkok," said the Myanmar
ambassador.
Other media invented human rights violations, he said.
During the 1988 "crisis," a BBC reporter had set up an interview with
some students by
handing them "the paper to read out and make a very good story," he
alleged.
"Those students after the crisis explained to the government that they
were not knowing
that all these papers reading out were affecting the reputation of the
country.
"But actual thing never happen, no rape case, no torture."
The UN Human Rights Commission last month condemned Myanmar for sweeping
human rights violations.
A resolution contained a long list of abuses ranging from summary
executions, torture,
and abuse of women to systematic programmes of forced relocation and
widespread use
of forced labour.
The resolution also highlighted increasing numbers of arbitrary and
politically motivated
arrests and detentions without trials.
"Now our people are happily engaged in their daily lives without
repression, without fear
and anxiety," said the Myanmar ambassador.
"I wish also to state categorically that allegations about human rights
violations in
Myanmar are completely groundless."